V. I. Lenin

Draft DecreeOn The Right Of Recall[1]

Written:19 November, 1917First Published:In theMinutes of
      the Central Executive Committee of Soviets of Workers’,
      soldiers’, Peasants’ and Cossack,’ Deputies,
      second Convocation,Moscow, 1918Source:Lenin’sCollected
      Works, Progress Publishers, Moscow, Volume 26, 1972,
      pp. 336-337Translated:Yuri Sdobnikov and George
      Hanna, Edited by George HannaTranscription & HTML Markup:Charles
      Farrell and David WaltersOnline Version:Lenin Internet ArchiveDecember,
      2000

No elective institution or representative assembly can be
      regarded as being truly democratic and really representative of
      the people’s will unless the electors’ right to recall
      those elected is accepted and exercised. This fundamental
      principle of true democracy applies to all representative
      assemblies without exception, including the Constituent
      Assembly.

Because the system of proportional representation is more
      democratic than the majority system, it demands more complex
      measures for the exercise of the right of recall, that is, the
      actual subordination of the elected to the people. But it would
      be betraying democracy and abdicating the basic principles and
      tasks of the socialist revolution, which has begun in Russia, to
      refuse, on that ground, to practise the right of recall, or to
      hamper or restrict its exercise in any way. What proportional
      representation demands is not a curtailment of the right of
      recall but a mere change of form.

Since the system of proportional representation is based on
      acceptance of the party system and the conduct of elections by
      organised parties, any major change in the balance of class
      forces and the relation of classes to parties, especially in the
      event of splits within major parties, necessarily produces the
      need for a re-election in any electoral district where there is
      a clear and obvious discrepancy between the will of the various
      classes and their strength, on the one hand, and the party
      composition of those elected, on the other. True democracy makes
      it imperative that the appointment of re-elections should not
      depend only on the institution to be re-elected, that is, that
      the desire on the part of those elected to retain their seats
      should not work against the exercise of the people’s will
      to recall its representatives.

In view of this, the All-Russia Central Executive Committee of
      the Soviets of Workers’, Soldiers’ and Peasants’
      Deputies, resolves:

The Soviets of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies and the
      Soviets of Peasants’ Deputies of each electoral district
      shall have the right to appoint re-elections to all city,
      Zemstvo and all other representative institutions in general,
      not excluding the Constituent Assembly. The Soviets shall also
      have the right to set the date for the re-elections, which shall
      be held in the usual manner, in strict conformity with the
      principles of the system of proportional representation.

[1]Placed before the All—Russia Central Executive Committee on
      November 21 (December 4), 1917, by the Bolshevik group. The need
      for such a decree was substantiated by Lenin (see
      pp. 338-40). The right of recall was in principle upheld by a
      majority of the Committee; two members voted against, arid one
      abstained. The draft was referred to a Co-ordinating Committee
      with the participation of Left Socialist-Revolutionaries. It
      introduced amendments to Lenin's draft, in which the right to
      appoint elections was vested in congresses of Soviets of
      Workers', Soldiers' amid Peasants Deputies (instead of the
      Soviets themselves), while the Soviets were empowered to appoint
      elections upon the demand of more than half the electorate in a
      given electoral district. The draft worked out by the
      Co-ordinating Committee was unanimously adopted by the
      All-Russia Central Executive Committee and published in Invests
      No. 233 on November 23 (December 6).

Under it, several peasants' and army congresses passed decisions
      recalling deputies from the Constituent Assembly. They were
      Cadets, Right Socialist-Revolutionaries and
      Mensheviks. including Avksemrtyev, Gots, Milyukov, and others.